Turnout reported low; few poll problems

Despite an intensely contested Philadelphia mayoral campaign and a state Supreme Court races with historic overtones, party workers throughout the region Tuesday were fretting over an absent majority.

Nonvoters evidently far-outnumbered the voters, and overall final turnout figures likely would be low even for an off-year primary.

But while the campaigns were energized, the electorate was another matter.

After touring polling places in Center City and South Philadelphia, Lynne Abraham, one of the five Democratic mayoral candidates defeated by former City Councilman James F. Kenney, declared, "It varies from very slow to about 20 percent."

"It's been a dull morning," said Carrie Woody, a voting machine inspector working a poll in Upper Providence, Montgomery County. "We are all just reading our library books."

In Philadelphia's 2007 primary, turnout was respectable, but still more than 60 percent of Democrats didn't cast votes for mayor, and Michael Nutter won handily against four major opponents, although only about 14 percent of registered Democrats voted for him.

In the 2013 primary, barely over 9 percent of voters in Montgomery County bothered to show up.

In addition to the mayoral election in Philadelphia, voters in the City of Chester were deciding a hotly contested race for the Democratic nomination.

And along with the Supreme Court vacancies, county judgeships and row offices are were on ballots throughout the region.

No major problems were reported at polling places locally or statewide — probably a function of low turnout, officials said — just other than the standard sample-ballot scams that are as much a part of Philadelphia elections as cheesesteaks, said City Commissioner Al Schmidt, and some reported machine malfunctions.

While no one was reporting a particularly heavy turnout, at least a few places were seeing saw moderate traffic.

In Chester, voting was described as "above average" at Fire Station No. 82, which serves one of the city's biggest precincts.

Linder objected to her presence inside the polling area, but she contended that as a certified poll-watcher she was entitled to be there.

Judge of Elections Rose Marie Burton said the dispute chased away some prospective voters, but in the afternoon voting was proceeding normally.

In Philadelphia, turnout was steady at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Mount Airy, said Robert Lambert, a judge of elections in the 9th Ward, 12th division. In Society Hill, acting elections judge Wendy Handler said, "It's been really steady."

In addition to Kenney and Abraham, the Democratic candidates for Philadelphia mayor were former Common Pleas Court Judge Nelson A. Diaz, former PGW executive Doug Oliver, former State Sen. T. Milton Street Sr., and State Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams.

Running unopposed for the Republican nomination was Melissa Murray Bailey, 36, a businesswoman.

Statewide, three seats are open on the state Supreme Court, a first since 1704.

"You would have thought under the circumstances there would be be more visibility and agitation around that," said David Thornburgh, head of the Committee of Seventy, the election watchdog group.

But voters interviewed acknowledged that they weren't well-acquainted with the judicial candidates.

Although a Philadelphia lawyer, Michael Ruttenberg, 76, said he was overwhelmed by the large number of names on the ballot. "A lot of the people running for judge," he said, "I don't know them at all."

Said Thornburgh, "That is the sad reality of judicial elections."

Inquirer staff writers Nancy Albritton, Chris Brennan, Cat Coyle, Angelo Fichera, Joseph A. Gambardello, Jason Laughlin, Laura McCrystal, Justine McDaniel, Samantha Melamed, Jessica Parks, Inga Saffron, Mari A. Schaefer, Julia Terruso, Claudia Vargas, and Yuge Xiao contributed to this article.